China’s “Split Personality” – Susan L. Shirk

Having trouble getting a coherent picture of China as a rising power? No wonder. The contradictory images are difficult to reconcile.

China calls itself a responsible power — a term it appropriated from Clinton administration speeches on China. But it also has deployed more than 700 missiles aimed at Taiwan.

China has stepped forward to mediate the conflict between the U.S. and North Korea over North Korea’s nuclear weapons. But it also has encouraged a virulent form of anti-Japanese nationalism that erupted into violent demonstrations in 2005.

Judging from its international behavior, China has a split personality. And both faces of Chinese power are rooted in China’s internal fragility and the domestic insecurities of its Communist Party leaders. [Full Text] and Author’s Respones to Reader]